Most people go to the movies to remedy real-world doldrums, which is why during a recession year like 2009, the box office broke records. Hollywood thrives when the economy’s down; the studio system practically built itself on proceeds from the Great Depression. Usually these audiences are seeking good old-fashioned escapism, and though it may not seem like it, The Company Men is exactly the kind of prescription Hollywood has to offer. It’s a manipulative recession-era melodrama about three senior employees coping with being laid off from their shipbuilding corporation. If that sounds depressing, well, then you just don’t know what the movies are capable of.

You can see what the filmmakers behind The Company Men are after just from the credits, and it’s not to reach out to the little people most affected by the recession. The movie boasts four Oscar winners in its cast and is lensed with beautiful but unshowy compositions by the Coen Brothers' go-to cinematographer, Roger Deakins. So yes, The Company Men definitely has its eye on the prize, which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself. There are exceptional performances, particularly from Chris Cooper, who plays a canned senior exec too old to regain his footing, and the brilliant but underrated Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married), who plays the levelheaded wife to Ben Affleck’s freshly unemployed corporate ass. However, despite its solemn subject matter, the movie primarily employs its talent to float above reality, opting for everything that is heartwarming and picturesque instead.

It’s hard to feel compassion for the high-priced, white-collar men in this movie. Sure, one at a time, they’re losing their jobs, but that just means they may have to downgrade their lifestyles a bit. No more million-dollar homes or Astons in the driveway. No more corporate jets and golf clubs. They’ll have to settle for one Christmas tree instead of the two that they’re accustomed to. Hell, Ben Affleck’s character, Billy Walker, even has to settle for a temporary job as a contractor (the horror!) -- ironic, since with so many homes on the market due to foreclosures, he still finds work building a house.

To say that The Company Men is disconnected from the average man is an understatement. The real recession-era tragedy in the movie is entirely off screen. The 3,000 ship workers the company fires are never seen in a movie that is too afraid to go down that road. The people who will struggle to survive are only mentioned as asides. They remain faceless, just like in real life. You can call that art imitating life, but it's also just contributing to the problem.

Meanwhile, Affleck’s Walker will be all right. You can already hear Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” playing in the back of your mind. Sure, Walker has to endure the soul-crushing tedium of the job hunt, with its constant rejections, empty promises, false hopes, and castration to a man’s ego -- it’s one of the few aspects of the movie that rings true. But he has a supportive family that he gets more time to spend with (a typical Band-Aid solution that the movies have to offer). And he’ll eventually find some “real” work -- no more carpentry -- because when the real world can’t produce new jobs, Hollywood still will.